Zeno Clash dev does what the Navy Seals didn’t — negotiate with pirates

Arrr! Piracy is a big issue in the video game and entertainment industries — we all know that. A lot of companies take the totalitarian approach and oppress users with ridiculous DRM. Others try to add value to legitimate purchases. And others, like Zeno Clash developer, ACE Team, do something totally different: they try to reason with the pirates. From Ars Technica:

“You can’t stop piracy, but you may be able to convince the pirates to pay for your game. When indie game developer ACE Team found its Zeno Clash in the expected places online, it decided to take a deep breath and engage the people downloading the game. The response? In many cases, second thoughts about stealing the title.

“Zeno Clash is an independently funded game by a very small and sacrificed group of people. The only way in which we can continue making games like this (or a sequel) is to have good sales,” Carlos Bordeu wrote in the comments for the torrent. “I am aware that at this moment there is still no demo of the game, but we are working on one which will be available soon.

“We cannot do anything to stop piracy of the game (and honestly don’t intend to do so) but if you are downloading because you wish to try before you buy, I would ask that you purchase the game (and support the independent game development scene) if you enjoy it.”

Is that great or what? Apparently the company has been getting a lot of emails and whatnot from potential pirates and their community about the positive effects of the message, and I’m glad that’s the case. It’s about damn time that more companies get smarter about how they deter piracy.

(oh and sorry about not putting that quote in the proper blockquote format… but it seems that images make blockquotes suck a bit)